A Year In Review: 2017

Hello everyone! Happy New Year from all of us at Foregen. We have some exciting highlights from the past year that we'd like to share with you.

What happened in 2017?

2017 was a great year for us, and we'd first like to thank our donors, volunteers, and supporters for their efforts in bringing us closer than ever to foreskin regeneration. Today, while we thank all of our supporters, we'd like to especially extend our gratitude to those of you who are not direct victims of male genital mutilation but have contributed your time and money to the regeneration of the human foreskin. In 2017 we saw an increase in female donors, some donating on behalf of men, as well as intact males contributing to the cause. This is a clear indication that our message is spreading, and being rightfully regarded as a serious issue. Thank you for your empathy, kindness, and support.

Now, for some details. We had 268 new donors, 914 new volunteers, and a whopping 1,494 new supporters registered on our site. We added 3 new staff members: Julian, Instagram Media Specialist; Robert, Director of Events; and Matthew, Assistant Social Media Manager. We're working with over 20 core volunteers who are assisting Foregen with major projects such as language translation, website development, platform moderation, video production, and graphic design. The Media Team has also been in correspondence with medical professionals, including nurses and doctors. Our monthly total in donations rose from a 2016 average of $7,155 and a sum total of $85,865 to a 2017 average of $10,447 and a sum total of $125,367. In 2016 the lowest monthly total was $4,950 and the highest was $9,700. In 2017 the lowest monthly total was $8,533 and the highest was $21,015; The highest monthly total we've ever had and the first time we've ever met and exceeded our monthly goal, thanks to a last-minute contribution from a very generous donor. This is a far cry from our all-time lowest monthly donations, being a mere $86 both in April 2014 and August 2014.

In 2017 we started our newsletter, "The Foregen Future", which was first published on June 15th, 2017 on a once-a-month basis and has since been published 12 times, now bi-weekly. We're producing our first podcast, which has been in the works for some time and should premiere later this month. We've begun coordinating with Brendon Marotta, the director of the award-winning documentary film, American Circumcision, to further the impact of both our messages. We attended several events, including Colby College's "Sexploration", New York City Pridefest, Pride Toronto, and Dallas Pride. We completed a huge milestone by finishing our decellularization experiments and submitting them for peer-review. A recent interview with Foregen's President Vincenzo Aiello and our two researchers Dr. Elena Bondioli and Dr. Valeria Purpura can be found here. We've begun work on an improved website design which, once completed, will be considered for possible replacement of the existing website. Lastly, our writers have submitted several interesting articles on our blog, which we encourage you to check out. Examples include this article titled "The Role of Regenerative Medicine in Foreskin Regeneration", and this article dealing with the Extracellular Matrix.

What to expect in 2018?

We expect the peer-review process to complete, with the publication of an official scientific article detailing our latest experiments. As detailed in this video by our spokesman, Eric Clopper, we've brokered a partnership with Netcapital, a crowdfunding company located in Boston, Massachusetts. Netcapital is going to host and promote our equity-based crowdfunding campaign. At this time we're anticipating the long-awaited animal-trials to take place sometime in 2018. We'll also be attending SXSW in Austin, Texas in March. SXSW is a massive trade show. This will be the largest event Foregen will have ever attended...and we'll be stationed there for 4 days.

We're excited to see how 2018 plays out, and we hope you are too. Thank you all again for your support, contributions, and encouragement, and we wish you a happy new year!